GNU backup software is very good. Our flight simulator, now mostly
ready, will be much more accurate than any game. I believe free file
manipulation and browser utilities are advancing fast. But it's true
we don't have a really good spreadsheet yet.
The GNU philosophy says that a proprietary program is not a good
solution to any problem.
But if you want to run proprietary applications on a GNU system
(including today's Linux-based GNU systems), you will certainly be
able to. You need a suitable binary compatibility package.
A Windows-compatibility package called WINE is already available, but
incomplete; it simulates some parts of Windows but not all. People
can contribute to it by implementing specific features that are now
missing. This package will give you access to far more proprietary
applications than can run on a Macintosh.
I hope someone will write a similar compatibility package for the Mac
OS. This would make it possible to run Mac applications on non-Apple
680x0 systems, under GNU.
But the question becomes, will Apple succeed in establishing for
themselves the power to sue and ban this program? And if they do,
will that also give Microsoft the power to sue and ban WINE? If one
can, the other can.
In the end, every technical issue in software leads us to the issue of
programming freedom. Whatever you want to do, it is crucial. To give
any company so much importance that you will let it take away your
freedom without a fight is selling yourself into serfdom.
I hope that most of the people interested in working on BSD are
motivated by a desire to improve free software. I hope these people
hope eventually to have good free applications, not settle for
proprietary ones.
I hope they want to be *allowed* to improve BSD and write good free
applications--and that they will join the League for Programming
Freedom to help ensure that.
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